The Cutting Edge
by Dollybigmomma
Summary: Bella's life had been hard for years after her parents' death, but she managed to pull it together, graduate and get through cosmetology school in order to support herself. Now a new opportunity that sounds too good to be true is presented by a handsome businessman. Could she be getting into more than she bargained for?


**Be sure to check my page for the link to the blog where this week's picture is posted. It's a picture of an ancient beauty salon that is trashed beyond belief!**

**THE CUTTING EDGE**

**By Dollybigmomma**

**Chapter 1 – The Comb-Over**

I hoped this wasn't a sign.

Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder crashed right above the house, as I blindly tried to get dressed. It was already after sunset and really cold outside, and the lights were out due to the storm, so the house was all kinds of dark and spooky. As I dug through my closet for something to wear to my meeting, I wondered…what did one wear for this sort of thing, anyway? I wished we were meeting during the daytime, but like me, the gentleman I was meeting had obligations during the day and could only meet me this evening. I finally dragged on the first pair of jeans I found that fit and wriggled into a sweater I dug out of the back of my closet, hoping the two would somehow coordinate. However, knowing my luck, and my wardrobe, that probably wouldn't be the case. But I was already running late, so I didn't have time to find a flashlight right now.

I grabbed my purse and scrambled out to my truck, climbing in while trying not to get too drenched. The hood of my coat blew off, letting my hair get soaked and messing up what effort I had put into it. Now I looked like a damned drowned rat. _Ha, try saying that ten times fast!_ There wasn't much I could do about it given the weather, though, but it still bugged me. I was a cosmetology graduate for heaven sakes, I was supposed to look polished and all put together. Right now, however, I looked like a stray cat trying to climb out of a well. That was going to make a great impression, I mumbled to myself sarcastically.

I drove through the darkened streets toward my meeting, trying to avoid the potholes in the road that would surely mess up my alignment again. I couldn't afford another round of auto repairs right now. School had taken most of what was left of the money from my parents' insurance once I had paid off Charlie's house and all their outstanding bills after they had died. That had been two years ago, on a night just like this, that it had happened…

_I had been living in Arizona with my mother since my parents' divorce, but I came back to visit Charlie pretty regularly. He was the town's Chief of Police and was really busy, but he always took off time for my visits, and so we were close. I nearly lost it when I got word that he had been injured on the job during a drug bust, and so I had offered to come back to Washington and stay with him while he recuperated and help him out after he finally got out of the hospital, which was anticipated to be over Labor Day weekend. He had been shoved down a flight of stairs, so his injuries were pretty bad and would have him out of work and in rehab until after the New Year. The plan was for me to stay until Christmas, and then go back home after Charlie was able to take full care of himself again. _

_Right before I was to leave for Charlie's, my mom had met Phillip. Theirs was a whirlwind romance, and they ended up driving to Vegas and getting married after only having known each other over a weekend. Mom was happy, though, happier than she had been in ages. Phil was apparently good for her. Despite having been divorced when I was just a baby, she and Charlie had remained somewhat friendly, and so they made plans for mom and her new husband to come up with me to Charlie's when he was released from the hospital, so they could spend my sixteenth birthday with me and get me enrolled in high school. They were also going to help me get Charlie to his rehab appointments that first week, until I could get my permanent Washington driver's license. _

_I'd had excellent grades and had been advanced in school. I was actually a year and a half ahead of my peers, so I was scheduled to enter Forks high school as a senior when school started up again. I was only going to be there for the fall, and then I was supposed to graduate at the end of the semester before Christmas and then return to Arizona. _

_I never made it. _

_Charlie's rehab session had been scheduled late that first evening, and so mom and Phil went to pick him up, while I finished making dinner. They never made it home. All three of them were killed, when a truck skidded on the rain-slicked highway, hitting them head on. My whole world was shattered that night. _

_Having no other relatives alive, I became a ward of the state. Charlie's best friend, Billy Black, stepped up and managed to get them to let me stay with them, and he helped me to get Charlie and Renee's affairs settled. Phil had an older daughter from a previous marriage, so she said she would handle everything in Arizona. She handled everything alright. She stripped the house bare; taking every last thing inside it, including things that had belonged to my mother's family for generations. She had either sold or traded everything away for drugs before I could do anything about it. The only reason she didn't get away with selling the house itself was because it was only in my mother's name; they had never had a chance to change it. Phil had been a nice guy, but apparently that was where it ended._

_Charlie's life insurance policy wasn't very much, and our house in Arizona sold way below market value due to the crappy economy and the stripped-down condition of it, so I didn't have much to work with after everything was paid off. I decided I wanted to keep Charlie's house, and once I was able, I would move back there until I knew what I was doing with my future. I quickly got a job at a hair salon in town to help earn my keep, since Billy was already struggling just to feed himself and his son, Jacob. After fighting Jacob off for the third time, though, I filed for emancipation, and at the age of sixteen, I was deemed an adult and was on my own. _

_I moved back to Charlie's house and finished high school, graduating with honors. Even with a scholarship, I didn't have enough money left to head straight off to a four-year university without having to work full-time, too, so I decided to go with a "Plan B" first. I needed something I could train for relatively quickly, something I could always fall back on and do on the side for extra money, something to help better support myself while saving up for the university. With that goal in mind, I dipped into my meager inheritance and enrolled in a cosmetology college during the day, as well as a massage therapy school at night in Port Angeles. I figured I could make decent money being able to perform full spa services while I saved up, and then I could attend a university later on for the degree I really wanted. Working in a salon was not my first choice of careers, but I had a knack for it, and the tips were decent, so I went with it as a means to an end…_

It had now been two years since the accident, and between house and car repairs, taxes and the high cost of living, I was still no closer to leaving Forks, at least not any time soon. I wished Charlie and Renee were here to see me now, though. Of course, they would have probably been happier if I had still been going to school out east at some fancy Ivy League university that cost more per semester to attend than Charlie made in six months, but at least I had done _something_ with myself besides drop out of high school and settle for living on the rez with Jacob and Billy. That would have been Jake's preference, to keep me there, barefoot and pregnant by now, but I still had my eye on that Ivy League education. It was just going to take a while before I could afford it.

Today, I was taking a huge step. At eighteen years of age, I was heading out for a meeting, where I would potentially become a business owner. I was meeting a Mr. Cullen to negotiate investing my talents and remaining money into a new salon he was planning on opening near the downtown area. Apparently, the place had once belonged to his grandparents, who were a barber and a beautician, and it needed a little bit of updating. He assured me it was completely doable, though, and I would have great access to clientele who worked around there and would appreciate my services and pay well for them.

I turned down the street of the address I had been given. I knew there were several hair salons in the area, but Mr. Cullen had a vision of a state-of-the-art spa that offered cutting-edge services to a growing customer base. It had all sounded so wonderful. However, as I parked my truck next to a small silver car in front of the two-story building with the address he had given me, my mouth fell open in shock.

Was he serious?

I could see someone through the filthy windows pacing back and forth inside, and I assumed it was Mr. Cullen. There was a dim light shining behind him from what looked like a camping lamp, and I could see he was quite tall. I slowly got out of my truck and walked to the door, pulling it open and gasping. The place was almost indescribable. It looked like I had stepped back in time to the 1940's, and World War II had been raged right here in this little shop from the looks of it. The place was a disaster.

The man who had been pacing looked up at me, and had I not been so shocked, not to mention pissed, I would have found him extremely attractive.

"Ms. Swan, thank you so much for coming. I-" he started, but I cut him off.

"A little updating? You've got to be kidding me!" I growled at him, "I've seen tamer looking haunted houses!"

I turned on my heel, ready to stomp my way back out the door, when he caught my elbow.

"Please!" he said in a begging voice, "Please, just hear me out. I'm sorry if I seemed to misrepresent things, I really didn't mean to mislead you, it's just that…this place means so much to me, to my family," he said sounding so genuine. "Can we please just talk?"

I finally turned around and looked at him in the dim light of the camping lamp. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, and being the sucker I was for a sensitive guy, I nodded. I was still seething, but I was starting to calm down some.

He pulled out a large, long roll of papers and unfurled it in one of the old pink chair seats, pulling the camping lamp a little closer so that I could see it was a set of blueprints and some sketches.

"My great-grandparents opened this shop in 1946 after the second world war. They put every dime they had into building it and getting it off the ground. They spent their whole life here and taught my grandmother, my mother and then me their trade. There's a three-bedroom apartment upstairs, as well as their house out back, where they lived until they passed, and it's where I live now. That was where my grandmother as well as my mother was born, in that house. I played in the yard here as a child, and all my best memories are here. When I was born, my grandmother retired so she could watch me during the day while my parents worked. She recently passed away and left the place to me, her oldest and favorite grandson," he smiled.

"I own the property outright, and there are no liens or back taxes owed on it. It's all clear and ready to be renovated. As you can see, the place hasn't been in business for over thirty years," he said gesturing around the room. "As bad as it looks now, the underlying structure is amazingly still very sound and just needs some minor repairs. The worst of it is cosmetic. I've consulted a contractor, a designer and an architect, also known as my brother, Emmett, my sister, Alice, and her husband, Jasper, and they've drawn up some plans for improvements. That's where you come in," he smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not a wealthy man, Ms. Swan, just your average guy. I can foot about a fourth of the costs up front with what savings I have, and I can get another fifty percent of it financed; it's that last fourth that's the holdup. I know it doesn't look like much now, but I know it could be. I just need someone who's willing to see beyond the broken tiles, dirt and dust to help me get it off the ground again; someone who has a dream and a vision and is willing to work hard and take a chance."

He walked up to me slowly, and the intensity of his gaze had me spellbound. "Are you that someone, Ms. Swan? Can I count on you to help me bring this place back to life?" he asked, and his deep voice cracked on the last word. I was frozen in place, held there by his mesmerizing, hopeful eyes and his intoxicating smell.

I could only nod yes.

"Great!" he clapped enthusiastically, breaking the spell. "I have the contracts right here. Give them a once-over, and then let me know when you're ready to sign," he said with a wide grin, shoving a stack of papers into my hands, before he clicked off the camping lamp and ushered me out the door. He quickly hopped in his car and was gone around the corner before I could even blink.

I stood there in the downpour, stunned at his rapid change of demeanor. My mouth was still gaping after him as he drove away, while the icy rain drenched my hair yet again.

What the hell had I just agreed to?


End file.
